XII MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 323 



formed and maintained round the base of the plant 

 that liquid may be put down by the pailful and sink 

 in, instead of running away. 



Like other Noisettes it is an early bloomer. And, 

 on walls or other places where it is likely to stand 

 the winter, the first crop of flowers (and in such hot, 

 dry positions there is seldom much of a second one) 

 are over considerably before the time of shows. For 

 exhibition purposes, therefore, the problem is how 

 to preserve standards in the open from frost in 

 winter, and from breaking too soon in the spring, 

 for they must not be hard pruned. I have for some 

 years been successful in this, and have had plenty of 

 these glorious yellow blooms to shine like lamps in 

 my show-stands among the reds and pinks and 

 whites. A row of half-standards is planted, some 

 two or three yards from plant to plant, leaning in 

 the row at a sharp angle, so that the head of the 

 plant is not much more than a foot from the 

 ground. For winter protection the stem by the 

 head is bent and pegged down to the ground as 

 far as it vrill go without straining the roots, and 

 the long shoots are similarly laid down. Any long 

 dry rubbish is now laid thickly over the whole row 

 (nothing green" or damp that will ferment and rot 

 should be allowed), forming a long mound, and 

 finally the whole is covered thickly, deeply — the 

 thicker the better — with earth, and smoothed and 

 made as air and water-tight as possible with a spade. 

 In short, they are " clamped " just like mangolds in 

 a field. It will be well to remove the very sappiest 

 and greenest of the shoots before doing all this, as 

 they would not be of much use if preserved, and 

 will probably rot when buried. This treatment 



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